41 replies to this topic

[JD DANNELS]

Enjoy the trip OB!! In my opinion if the lift keeps the wife mobile, it would be cheap at twice the price!

 

Jo is still pretty mobile, but I did buy her one of those padded garden stools with the handles to make it easier for her to get up & down in the garden. She loves her garden.

[NJKen]

Have a safe trip. I wonder if that lift could also be used to lift heavy tractor parts to get them inside ?

[KC9KAS]

You are "living the dream" of traveling when & where you want to go, and I think you are having a ball doing it!

 

RVing & GTing.....What more could a guy ask for!

[OldBuzzard]

Well gents, at 6:00  EDST, it became an official "OldBuzzard tractor getting and rain making expedition"    

 

We are currently sitting in the last service plaza in Indiana...and it's raining with a bit of thunder to boot  We are taking a bit of a rest stop and avoiding driving through Chicago during rush hour.

 

I read some of you guy's post to Mrs. Buzz and she got a hearty laugh out of the "riding in the chair on the outside" ones.

 

Earlier I mentioned "Einstein the FedEx driver".  Now that I'm not so 'agitated" I guess I'll relay it now.

 

Last evening @ 8:20 we were on West bound I-80 at about the 230 mile marker in Ohio.  We were in a construction zone so the limit was 50 mph, and the signage had directed trucks to stay in the right lane.  Being the size I am, I decided that the right lane would be good for me too.

 

Now I know that a lot of folks don't like the slow down, and quite frankly neither do I, so I and the traffic in front of me were running 5 over at 55  mph. 

 

Well sirs, "Einstein the FedEx driver" who was coming up from  behind me decided that 5 over wasn't enough, so he pulled out to the left lane, crossing the solid white line to boot, and started going around me.

 

Right as his cab got just in front of me, the road which was already narrow, narrowed even more due to a bridge, and I had two choices. Either let him hit me on the left side, or ease over to the right as far as I could.  Unfortunately, right at the end of the bridge there was a bit of an abutment that stuck out, and I clipped it with the right side of the motorhome.  It made one heck of a bang, and I thought that I had torn up something, possibly the trailer.  I pulled over immediately, while "Einstein" motored away fat dumb and happy not knowing that anything had happened.

 

After I pulled over and got out to take a look at the damage, I really didn't see anything at first, and thought that maybe I had just hitt a chuck hole or something.  Then with a closer look, I saw at the right front corner of the motorhome, a set of very slight scratches.  I looked further down the side and I could see that they went the full length of the coach, and at points was more than just a slight scratch.  Now I was VEXED.  Not only that, but Mrs. Buzz was pretty upset and crying because, although she couldn't see the side from where she was sitting, she just knew that we had major damage.

 

What really pisses me off is that all "Einstein" had to do was stay behind me for much more than 1/2 mile where the construction zone ended.

 

I'll include pics of the damage along the side.  The scary part is that if I would have been just 1" more to the right it would have taken off the entire side, and who knows how the motorhome would have reacted. Remember all of this took place at 55 mph or so, and I'm thinking I avoided a major accident by just the tiniest of margins.  I could have easily been thrown back to the left and into "Einstein" and who knows what that outcome would have been like.

 

Anyway, here's the pics.  There is also a loose part of the trim just under the passenger seat on the outside that I have taped with "Gorilla Tape", but I did that after I took the pics of the side, as we didn't know of that damage until Mrs. Buzz noticed it 'flapping" in the mirror.  I'll take and post pics of that in an upcoming post.

 

Also, here's pics of the old tractor getting rig and new tractor getting rig for comparison 

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Edited by OldBuzzard, May 03, 2013 - 06:47 PM.

[Newpaws493]

Your skills as pilot probably kept this from being much worse. Happy to know y'all are well despite the careless disregard of EinsteinFX.

I guess it's officially yours now, complete with battle scars and you know how it handles in extreme defense mode. Get good rest when you can. y'all are needed back in good health.

[UncleWillie]

I hate drivers like that. If you had gotten a truck number you could have called FedEx. I have called many companies for less.Although if Einstein had hit you you would have a new Motor home.

[OldBuzzard]

Yeah, getting his truck number would have been nice, but I was just too danged busy to do that.

 

I'm hoping that FedEx does GPS tracking of their trucks, and that with the approximate time and location that they just might be able to identify him.

 

In any event, I WILL be sending an email with all of the pertinent information.  I'm not so much worried about getting any damages since almost all of the damages is cosmetic.  I just would like for Einstein to get his pee-pee whacked for being a dumbass driver.

 

There's really no way to actually prove anything except for our word, so legally there would be no recourse.

 

Well, we are now in a Flying J truck stop for the night.  The seller of the lift is only 18 miles or so from here, so with an early start in the morning we will get that picked up, and then head out for the duals.

 

OH, did I mention that Chicago drivers SUCK?  Not only do they suck, the horse they rode in on sucks and so do their little dogs too!  Even after we stayed in the service plaza to miss rush hour, at danged near 8:00 their time they still  had the freeway all bolloxed up.  I'm danged sure glad that I don't live there and have to fight their traffic every day. I thought that the Cleveland drivers sucked, but the Chicago drivers take suckage to a whole new level.

[KennyP]

OB, glad that was the only damage you got from that. Could have been worse. I'm sure FedEx knows who that driver is with their package tracking system. Just whether or not they will do anything is another story!

[olcowhand]

I'd say you won't get any true relief from FedEx, but I'd bet the driver is identified & he gets an ear full from his superiors even if you never hear about it.  If you hadn't been on full alert & ready, this could have had a tragic ending.  Makes a good case for a camera on the dash recording the entire drive.

[UncleWillie]

Dash cam vids with OB. I can see a new addiction starting.

[OldBuzzard]

I'd say you won't get any true relief from FedEx, but I'd bet the driver is identified & he gets an ear full from his superiors even if you never hear about it.  If you hadn't been on full alert & ready, this could have had a tragic ending.  Makes a good case for a camera on the dash recording the entire drive.

 

Yeah, relief from FedEx is really a non-issue at this point, and really something I wouldn't look for, considering the circumstances.  I'd just like the driver to be aware that his carelessness danged near killed us, and possible him as well. A "Counseling Session" as they called it in the USAF when I was in would be in order.  As in, "I have counseled the airman, and he is aware of his responsibilities".  AKA, a good old fashioned ass chewing 

 

As for a dash cam...I've been thinking about it.  If you have never driven a large vehicle, you just have no idea at all of the stupid things that mostly car drivers do in front of you.

[OldBuzzard]

RUH-ROH...

 

Bump in the road, or more correctly a KABOOM on the road.  Blew out the inside left dual just south of Milwaukee

 

We are waiting for assistance from The Good Sam Club.  They are currently trying to find someone to come out and put my spare on.

 

I did get the lift and the duals.  The duals have BRAND NEW Goodyear Terra-Tires on them and I may have a source for a 2nd set of them.  Sure would be nice to have them on the Forklift.

 

Not only that, but the guy with the duals also had, note the word had, a big box of Bolens manuals, engineering notes, and other 'goodies'.  He said that he got them from someone that worked at Bolens.  Looks like they may be a treasure trove of information.  I might have paid too much for them, but if I did, I did.  There are things in there that need to be preserved.

 

His dad also has a 14xx prototype, with the serial number of X3.  He and his dad knew a lot of folks that worked at Bolens and he says that Bolens wasn't all that concerned if prototypes 'went into the wild'.  Kinda interesting that they took such a casual stance on them.

Edited by OldBuzzard, May 04, 2013 - 05:47 PM.

[wilberj]

RUH-ROH...

 

Bump in the road, or more correctly a KABOOM on the road.  Blew out the inside left dual just south of Milwaukee

 

We are waiting for assistance from The Good Sam Club.  They are currently trying to find someone to come out and put my spare on.

 

I did get the lift and the duals.  The duals have BRAND NEW Goodyear Terra-Tires on them and I may have a source for a 2nd set of them.  Sure would be nice to have them on the Forklift.

 

Not only that, but the guy with the duals also had, note the word had, a big box of Bolens manuals, engineering notes, and other 'goodies'.  He said that he got them from someone that worked at Bolens.  Looks like they may be a treasure trove of information.  I might have paid too much for them, but if I did, I did.  There are things in there that need to be preserved.

 

His dad also has a 14xx prototype, with the serial number of X3.  He and his dad knew a lot of folks that worked at Bolens and he says that Bolens wasn't all that concerned if prototypes 'went into the wild'.  Kinda interesting that they took such a casual stance on them.

 

 

I like to have a talk with you over the phone when you get back plz.  

[OldBuzzard]

Well, the tire finally got changed around 8:30 or so.  The first guy they contacted had to cancel when his air compressor died, and the 2nd guy took a bit of time to arrive. Then when he tried to start his compressor...it was out of gas.

 

He did manage to get the lug nuts off, with what I thought was WAY too little effort.  I'm thinking that whoever put those tires on didn't torque them correctly, or that a PO neglected to have them re-torqued after a bit of driving.

 

It was one heck of a struggle to get the inner wheel/tire off, but he did finally prevail.  Then after he got it changed, he had me follow him to his shop so that he could torque the lug nuts with his impact wrench.

 

Now the good and the bad.  The good was that I did have an inflated spare.  The bad is that it's 13 years old.  Sure hope it manages to get me back to Ohio.  The other tires are almost 5 years old, so it looks like new tires are in order when I get back.  That's gonna put a crimp in the tractor fund for sure.

 

Anyway, I'm sitting in a (where else) Walmart parking lot, getting ready to batten down the hatches, and head for home.

 

Another good thing is that it looks like I'll probably be able to get well into Indiana before I need gas.  Gas prices here in the DSR Illinois are horrible.  $4.00+ in the Obamaville (Chi) area, and in the $3.80s-90s elsewhere.

Edited by OldBuzzard, May 05, 2013 - 09:17 AM.

[OldBuzzard]

Tonight, I'm in yet another Walmart parking lot 

 

This time in Valparaiso, IN.  I'll explain the reasoning behind that later.

 

The wife and I got to talking it over, and decided that trying to get back home on the 13 year old tire was just too big a risk, and since we needed to get new tires anyway we might as well do it now. That decided, I went on a search for tires, and we ended up heading for the Hollywood Casino RV park near Joliet, IL since there was a better chance of finding tires there than in the little town we were in.

 

We stayed overnight there, and bright and early this morning I started the search for some Hankook tires.  Hankook has a VERY good reputation in the RV World for being very good quality tires at a very decent price. We had seen a Ford dealer that handled trucks right off the exit we took to get to the Casino, so I took note of the name and called them first.  He said that they could get the specific tires that I was looking for, and then gave me a quote for $400.00 per tire and then mounting, etc., etc. for a total of nearly $3,500.00.  Well now, I did not just fall off of the turnip truck.  I had already researched Hankook tires and the ones I wanted were going for under $300.00 on the net.  I wasn't expecting 'net prices', but I danged sure wasn't going to pay $100.00+ more than net pricing either. 

 

So, I did a bit of Googling, and found a place that was no more than 15 minutes from the Casino who had the tires in stock, and a price very close to 'net prices'.

 

It was a really interesting experience.  The guys that changed the tires did it all by hand using tire irons.  It was amazing to watch them, as they did it with looked like almost no effort at all.  It has to be something of an art, and I guess that with the proper technique it's not as hard as us armatures make it.

 

Any way after 6 new tires, valve stems, balancing, and a front end alignment, the total came to just a tad over $2,500.00  All in all not too bad when you consider that these are 245/70R 19.5 tires.  It get's better because we have Good Sam insurance that covered the cost on the tire that blew out, so they will be sending us right at $350.00, which will make out total out of pocket expense @ $2,150.00.

 

I'll have a couple of pics of the blown tire at the end of this post.

 

Now, as to why we are heading South instead of East.

 

Last November when we went on the road trip to get the HDT1000, we made a side stop where I picked up a Haban Flail-Mo, a Brinly Planter, and a MacKissic Sprayer.  When I picked those up, I left behind the mounting bracket for the Flail-Mo.  Neither the seller nor I knew what it was, and I didn't think to look at the parts list, so I just left it thinking it belonged to something else.

 

While sitting in a service plaza just over the IN border having a bit of supper, I got to thinking and said to myself "Self, why not call the guy, and make arrangements to dropdown and pick that rascal up since you are already most of the way there anyway". Self replied "Sounds like a plan".  Whereupon I broached the subject to wife, and wife said it sounded good to her.  So we re-plotted the course, and will be heading for Janesville, IN in the morning.  So, that's why we are in Valparaiso tonight.

 

After that, if the fella calls back, we will be heading for the Ft. Wayne area to look at the Bolens Sweeper.

 

Just before I started posting I mentioned to the wife, "You know, this all started out as just a "3 hr. tour" to MacDonald, PA.

 

I gotta say, that this has been the most INTERESTING road trip I've taken yet, and it's still not over. 

 

Now the tire pics.  As you can see there was plenty of tread, but the tires on this thing were WAY overdue to be replaced because of their age.  Five to six years is really the max age for tires on an RV or you risk just what happened to me.

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